By Our Reporter
Africa’s richest man and business tycoon, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that his multi-billion-dollar fortune was not inherited but built from scratch through his own entrepreneurial journey.
Dangote explained that although he was born into affluence on both paternal and maternal sides, he chose to rely on his own business instincts rather than family wealth.
The business mogul said his maternal t
family name, Dantata, commanded great influence in commerce and politics, with his late great-grandfather and grandfather counted among the richest in West Africa.
He stressed that he never relied on his father’s fortune, noting that whatever property he received after his father’s passing was later donated to charity.
“I came from a wealthy family. My late great-grandfather in the 1940s was actually the richest, you know, West African. My late grandfather was one of the wealthiest Nigerians, you know.
“The family name is Dantata. That’s from my maternal side. My father, too, you know, was fairly rich, you know, but he was both, you know, in business and also in politics.
“But one thing that I’m very, very proud of is that I did not inherit any money from my father. I built everything from scratch to where I am,” he said
Dangote noted that his career in business began in Lagos where he ventured into buying and selling cement, a humble beginning that later paved the way for his industrial success.
He recounted: “I went to Lagos and started my own business by just, you know, buying cement, selling. You know, it was just a very low-key business.”
“When you look at cement, cement is what builds infrastructure, and we have a lot of infrastructural deficits. In Nigeria alone, we have about 17,000 deficit of housing and it is all over Africa.
“So when we started cement in Nigeria, we realised that the majority of it was actually imported, and that is why we went in there,” Dangote said.
